St. Charles North shuts out Batavia
Fresh from capturing the title in last weekend's Iowa Tournament, St. Charles North's girls soccer team crept a bit closer to a possible Upstate Eight Conference River Division championship Tuesday night in Geneva.
Sophomore Katy Beth Kusswurm scored the game's first goal with 3:57 remaining in the opening half and teammates Madison Kaufmann and Gia Wahlberg helped break things open with second-half goals while lifting the North Stars (14-2-1, 5-0) to a 3-0 UEC River triumph over Batavia (12-3-3, 5-2) on Tri-Cities Night at Burgess Field.
"I thought in the first half we were creating chances," said North Stars coach Ruth Vostal. "Batavia was good at getting their numbers back and it was crowded in the middle so we talked about getting the ball wide before we put it in and then being ready for the shots.
"I thought the three goals were phenomenal goals," added Vostal, whose team visits St. Charles East (17-1, 6-0) Saturday afternoon. "I think there were some others that could have gone in but I thought the passes and the assists that got them were great."
Vostal felt her team's annual weekend trek to Iowa was a benefit against the Bulldogs.
"The girls played great in Iowa - we always seem to play great out there. I think being away and only having to focus on soccer is part of that."
Kaufmann, a sophomore, received a beautiful cross from Wahlberg on her goal that extended the North Stars' lead to 2-0 with 15:23 remaining.
"I saw Madison Kaufmann coming in just outside the defender and I really didn't have a great angle but I just slotted it in and she was good enough to finish," said Wahlberg.
A little more than 3 minutes later, Wahlberg, a freshman, cleaned up a rebound of a shot by Morgan Rerko to provide added insurance for the North Stars.
"When we got to the second half, we decided that as a team we needed to take more shots and obviously that worked for us," said Wahlberg, whose team peppered Batavia goalkeeper Jenny Scara with 8 second-half shots.
North Stars sophomore keeper Leanne Stahulak made a pair of saves while supported by the efforts of defenders Lauren Neslund, Adisson Ams, Claire Barresi and Lauren Willis.
"We've been working on team defense and I was proud of that," said Vostal. "The back line was great and Leanne (Stahulak) has been playing great in goal."
Senior midfielder Karina Rosales and junior forward Megan McEachern helped generate Batavia's best scoring chances.
"I thought we had some decent chances up top, especially in the first half," said Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco. "I thought we played real good game. St. Charles North is a tough team. You're not going to get many chances so you've got to take advantage of the ones you get.
"I thought we were really composed with the ball but at the end of the day it comes down to goals and we didn't have those today."